Golf can be a very enjoyable game, but it is hard for a beginner to learn the basics of a smooth, consistent and powerful swing. For a person just beginning to learn the game, a great deal of time and effort are required to “teach” the muscles of the hands, arms, legs and back the specialized coordinated movement required to hit a golf ball powerfully and consistently. For this reason the beginning golfer may seek the assistance of a mechanical device to train and improve his or her golf swing more quickly, efficiently and economically than by going to a golf course or driving range and trying to hit the ball without some sort of guidance or assistance in developing a proper golf swing.
The key to a proper golf swing is, of course, the backswing. Without a proper backswing or “takeaway”, the downswing through the ball impact zone cannot be delivered consistently and under proper control, which means that the ball may be hit unpredictably, or not at all. This must be followed by a smooth and consistent follow-through, which connects all the other elements of the swing into the kind of unified fluid and repeatable movement which is so important to playing an enjoyable game of golf.
It is also very important for a golfer to learn a proper swing early and not to develop bad habits which must later be unlearned with great difficulty. In addition, proper initial training enables the golfer to develop and retain a “muscle memory” which insures that each golf shot can be made controllably and predictably.
The present invention achieves these objectives by assisting the golfer to both see and feel these important swing elements which would otherwise be very difficult to visualize.
The prior art includes many devices conceived and intended to help a golfer improve his or her golf swing, but none disclose or suggest the use of a visible retractable cord as a training aid for visibly indicating the direction or path of the swing. The following are just a few examples.
A spring-loaded reel or pulley is disclosed by Hughes U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,663 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,714 in which the reel resiliently pays out or pulls in a cord which attaches to a golf-club simulating handle. The reel is positioned on a post or beam above and behind the user's head so that by swinging the handle downward against the resistance of the reel, the device provides a form of exercise or muscle development. Similar reels are shown in older prior art such as Poole U.S. Pat. No. 518,967, Patterson U.S. Pat. No. 1,137,349, and Boyd U.S. Pat. No. 3,804,420.
Fenton, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,835 and Qualey, Sr. U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,734 disclose golf club-like exercise training devices in which the club portion contains or is attached to a weight retained by a resilient cord, but neither uses the cord as training aid for visibly indicating the direction or path of the swing.
Several prior art devices utilize physical restraints, much like prosthetic devices, to train the user to execute a presumably improved golf swing. These include Herridge II U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,122, Romano U.S. Pat. No. 6,783,464, Kim et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,640 and Snyder et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,863,616. All of these devices constrain the user's range of movement in some way, and none disclose or suggest the use of a flexible cord as a visible swing path indicator.
An additional group of prior art documents disclose various mechanical devices which, in Draconian fashion, force the user to assume physical postures and patterns of golf swing movement as dictated by their mechanisms, and not as taught by free repetitive movement as in the previously described patents, and as provided for by the present invention. These documents include Arena U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,589, Self et Al. Re. 32,397, Perry et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,303,927, Florain U.S. Pat. No. 6,699,141, Pope U.S. Pat. No. 6,805,641, Hamilton, U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,065, and Chapman et al. App. US 2002/0025892 and US 2004/0152534. Like all the previously described disclosures, none of these disclose or suggest the use of a flexible cord as a visible swing path indicator.